Building 1st Gaming PC

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StinsonOut

Honorable
Mar 27, 2013
2
0
10,510
Hello everyone,

I am about to build my very first gaming PC and would like to make sure I am not making any big mistakes. My budget is to keep it under $1200. I would also like to be able to run engineering design programs like ProE and AutoCAD but the main focus is gaming. Any advice or recommendations are much appreciated. Below are the components I have come up with after a couple hours of research (prices from Newegg before rebates):

CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz $219.99
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V LGA 1155 $134.99
Graphics Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7950 3GB $299.99
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1866 $66.99
PSU: SeaSonic M12II 620W Bronze $89.99
Hard Drive: WD Black 500GB 7200RPM SATA 6.0GB/s 3.5" $84.99
SSD: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" $119.99
Case: AZZA Solano 1000 ATX Full Tower $119.99
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus $25.99

Total comes out to roughly $1160. Let me know if more info is needed.

Thanks!
Elliot
 
Solution
g-unit1111
Motherboard shopping can be confusing, but try to figure out what you are paying for. For example, a lot of the $130+ motherboards are actually designed for dual GPU configurations. Considering how dual GPU configurations are terrible for the money, I'd say 95% of gamers don't to pursue such an option. Any Z77 motherboard is the same chipset! There are no great performance leaps to be had by paying extra, since what you are paying for (multiple PCI-e 16x slots) you won't be using. Furthermore, if you have no interest in clocking, the Z77 chipset is probably unnecessary, the cheaper H77 will work just as well. Here's my Z77 motherboard which I used to achieve 4.5 overclock with a 3570K...
Click to expand...
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lunyone

lunyone

Splendid
Feb 22, 2006
6,517
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26,960
Generally a decent build, but there are a few areas that I'd adjust:

* CPU is a good option, I'll list an AMD build too for your perusal.
* Mobo is good and should work well for what you want to do.
* RAM is fine, I usually go with 1600 mHz RAM that run on stock voltage of 1.5v and at least CAS 9 timings for Intel builds.
* PSU is really good and should last for years!
* HD is a bit low on size, I'd go with at least a 1 TB size, for about $10-20 more.
* SSD is fine, but I'd go with at least a 240-256 gb sized one to give you some room for games/apps (120 gb's just doesn't give you much room). Most SSD's run optimally under 80% of capacity, so keep that in mind (so under 100 gb's of space on a 128 gb SSD - before formatting)
* Case is a bit much, but to each his own.
* CPU HSF is okay, but if you don't OC than you won't need it, unless you want something better than the stock CPU HSF.

AMD build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.91 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($186.83 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($289.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $980.67
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-27 01:16 EDT-0400)

Intel build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.91 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($144.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($186.83 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($289.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1085.67
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-27 01:19 EDT-0400)
 
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G

Greatatlantic

Honorable
Mar 17, 2013
169
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10,710
My thoughts,

The 3570K is designed for overclocking. That is literally what the K at the end means. If you have no interest in overclocking, then you can save $40 by getting a 3350P, which is almost as good.

Motherboard shopping can be confusing, but try to figure out what you are paying for. For example, a lot of the $130+ motherboards are actually designed for dual GPU configurations. Considering how dual GPU configurations are terrible for the money, I'd say 95% of gamers don't to pursue such an option. Any Z77 motherboard is the same chipset! There are no great performance leaps to be had by paying extra, since what you are paying for (multiple PCI-e 16x slots) you won't be using. Furthermore, if you have no interest in clocking, the Z77 chipset is probably unnecessary, the cheaper H77 will work just as well. Here's my Z77 motherboard which I used to achieve 4.5 overclock with a 3570K: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130646 . Price is $105.

$85 for 500 gigabytes of HDD storage strikes me as a bad deal. I recommend you pick from this list: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=-1&isNodeId=1&Description=seagate+barracuda&x=0&y=0 . I consider Seagate on par with Western Digital, but cheaper. Alternatively, consider buying just a better SSD (256 gigs) and plan on buying a larger HDD when you run out of space, taking advantage of the time value of money.

Finally, the following GPU is almost as good as the one you selected, only costs a lot less: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131484 .
 
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
Jul 27, 2011
42,549
824
104,940
Motherboard shopping can be confusing, but try to figure out what you are paying for. For example, a lot of the $130+ motherboards are actually designed for dual GPU configurations. Considering how dual GPU configurations are terrible for the money, I'd say 95% of gamers don't to pursue such an option. Any Z77 motherboard is the same chipset! There are no great performance leaps to be had by paying extra, since what you are paying for (multiple PCI-e 16x slots) you won't be using. Furthermore, if you have no interest in clocking, the Z77 chipset is probably unnecessary, the cheaper H77 will work just as well. Here's my Z77 motherboard which I used to achieve 4.5 overclock with a 3570K: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... . Price is $105.
Click to expand...

H77 prohibits access to the multiplier. If you're buying a 3570K you will not have access to the multiplier - the key benefit of getting an unlocked CPU.

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.91 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($186.83 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($289.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $980.67
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-27 01:16 EDT-0400)
Click to expand...

Anything over $1K I wouldn't bother with AMD and even if you do get a 990FX board for multiple PCI x16 lanes. The original build looks good but could be improved:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.23 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: OCZ Vector Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.97 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1152.09
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-27 02:22 EDT-0400)

That would be a better use of that budget - better case, better PSU, better SSD (best on the market actually), and better GPU.
 
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